The Case Against Judge Dugan is Coming Into Focus

The case against Judge Hannah Dugan is set to begin next Monday. Jury selection in the case will take place this Thursday and Friday with Judge Lynn Adelman presiding.

The case against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan kicks off with jury selection on Thursday, Dec. 11. She is accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade ICE inside the courthouse. Another judge will oversee the case – Federal Judge Lynn Adelman...

Federal Judge Adelman sided with the Trump Administration in allowing the case against Dugan to move forward. But in 2020, he wrote a Harvard Law Review article critical of a U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice. In that article, Adelman accused John Roberts of "a masterpiece of disingenuousness." He also mentioned President Trump's "temperament is that of an autocrat." The Judicial Council of the Seventh Judicial Circuit formally rebuked him for the article.

As the case draws near, we're starting to get a much clearer picture of the evidence prosecutors will use against Judge Dugan. One key element of the case is audio recordings from Judge Dugan's courtroom. The defense is trying to prevent recordings of what was said while Judge Dugan was outside the courtroom blocked. This includes the moments when she went out to tell the arrest team to go talk to the Chief Judge in his office.

During a two-minute and 45-second segment, Dugan leaves her courtroom to speak to the ICE and other federal agents in the main corridor, accompanied by another judge, Kristela Cervera.

Back in her courtroom, Dugan's clerk is heard saying Dugan is calling the chief judge about the planned arrest. A public defender says Dugan is confronting the agents in the hallway. Her clerk then goes in the hallway, and can be seen on the video from the corridor.

Also in this period, a lawyer identified as W.P. is at the defense table with his client, and can be heard discussing the case, the government filing says.

This is important, prosecutors argue, because when Dugan returns to her courtroom, she abruptly directs the attorney, W.P., and his client to step back so she can take Flores-Ruiz's case.

The defense is arguing that Dugan shouldn't be convicted on what 3rd parties said while she was out of the room. But the prosecutors say the reactions inside the courtroom demonstrate that what Judge Dugan was doing was not routine.

Dugan's defense has also argued that her decision to usher Eduardo Flores-Ruiz out a non-public door shouldn't matter because the door he went out was only 12 feet away from the main door to the courtroom. Plus, they argue, he got arrested anyway.

Dugan's attorneys have suggested that sending Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out that hidden hallway was not an effort to dodge agents. In their filing Nov. 14, they note Flores-Ruiz emerged "11 feet and 10 inches" to the right of the courtroom's main entrance.

Dugan's team also has said judges have the power to direct defendants and their attorneys out of different exits, adding that Dugan doing so gave Flores-Ruiz no advantage because he was quickly arrested.

Two points about this. First, Judge Dugan specifically made an effort to send the arrest team to the Chief Judge's office before sending Flores-Ruiz out the alternate door. She almost certainly did not know that there was still one member of the team in the hallway who recognized Flores-Ruiz getting on the elevator and got on the elevator with him. This is how he wound up being caught after a foot chase outside.

Secondly, Dugan may not have intended Flores-Ruiz to enter the hallway at all. There was another exit from the non-public hallway she ushered Flores-Ruiz into which went directly to the stairway.

There is another way Flores-Ruiz and his attorney could have exited from that hidden hallway, which may have allowed them to avoid agents, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has learned.

Reporters found this other door when reviewing courthouse blueprints from the Milwaukee County Historical Society and exploring the layout of the courthouse's sixth floor.

The other door is just before the exit that Flores-Ruiz and his attorney went through. This door leads to an interior stairwell that goes down to the courthouse's fifth floor, where additional stairways and elevators take people to the ground floor and outside.

Had Flores-Ruiz taken that first door, he may have been able to avoid federal agents waiting for him in the main corridor, or at least gotten more of a head start.

Dugan's defense is trying to argue that she never intended to help Flores-Ruiz escape, but the prosecutors note (and this appears to have been recorded) that she specifically told Flores-Ruiz's attorney to take him "out of the jury door and 'down the stairs.'" At this point, someone else in the courtroom asked Judge Dugan "You want me to show them? I don't think she knows. She might go out the wrong door." That person later explained in an interview with the FBI that the "wrong door" was the one leading into the hallway. The implication was that the right door was the one leading directly to the stairs.

In short, Judge Dugan envisioned Flores-Ruiz and his attorney taking the first door and heading down the stairs, not taking the 2nd door into the hallway where they would then decide to take the elevator and get spotted.

It really sounds like a pretty solid case given that Judge Dugan herself was recorded saying they should go "down the stairs." We'll get a better idea of how the prosecution case holds up starting next week.

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